Adulthood
Gender Perspective during
Adulthood
2 approaches : A). Developmental
B). “Aging” approach
Personality has been examined most thoroughly in developmental terms in
adulthood, is often understood in terms of continuities or lack of change, but has rarely
been examined in terms of decline or “aging.” In contrast, the cognitive and physical
changes associated with adulthood are nearly always conceptualized in terms of broad
processes rather than stages and, indeed, usually in terms of decline.
Gender matters in certain psychological experiences of adulthood
1. Gender and lifespan developmental approaches to studying adult personality.
2. Gender and the aging mind and body across adulthood.
3. Implications of gendered social roles for adult development and aging.
Gender and Personality in Adulthood
• Personality is affected by declines or developments in other domains
(e.g., cognition, the body, or social roles, behavior, emotion ).
• Erikson’s theory covers the period from birth to death, emphasizes
the interplay between individual development and social demands,
and includes four major periods during adulthood (those pertaining to
identity, intimacy, generativity, and integrity).
• Developmental preoccupations i.e if there is lack in any stage then it
may re-surface later in life if a previous resolution fails (like trust vs
mistrust in stage 1 etc.)
Erikson’s Theory of Personality
Development
• Erikson believed that a woman’s identity was defined and completed by her
intimate commitment to a life partner (that he assumed would be male).
Erikson proposed that for men intimacy, or the sixth developmental stage,
occurs when “. . . the young adult. . . is eager and willing to fuse his identity
with that of others” (p. 263). Thus for men intimacy presupposes a developed
identity,
• but for women identity emerges only through the process of intimate
commitment. In this way, for Erikson, adulthood begins in highly gendered
terms.
• Although Erikson viewed “generativity” as encompassing procreativity,
productivity, and creativity among men, he thought that the primary outlet
for generativity among women was the creation and rearing of children.
Critiques of Gender in Erikson’s
Theory and Beyond
(1) the deeply gendered account of much of adulthood, and
(2) the organization of adult personality into a fixed (and allegedly complete) set of “stages.”
Franz and White (1985) suggested revisions to Erikson’s theory that would address
Implicit gender bias.
Some stages focused on attachment or relationships (which are associated generally with
women) and other stages focused on individuation (which are associated generally with
men),
For example, identity is discussed in Erikson’s theory entirely in terms of individuation,
whereas Franz and White argued that becoming an individual who is connected to other
people (e.g., family of origin, teachers, friends, intimates) is the real task and that the task
requires attention to both individuation and attachment
Franz and White argued that Erikson’s theory builds gender into different stages rather than
including the stereotypical strengths of both men and women in each stage.
• Erikson focused on reproduction as women’s outlet for generativity,
whereas men “. . . achieve generativity through intellectual,
occupational, and other public endeavors” (p. 473).
• Extended this criticism to Erikson’s final stage during which, if
childless, women are more vulnerable to the despair that is the
opposite pole of the ego integrity–despair dilemma.
• Women and men experience particular and different sequences of
development in terms of the stages Erikson outlined.
• White women resolved identity crises earlier and had higher levels of
intimacy than White men did. Ochse and Plug suggested, contrary to
Erikson, that men develop identity through the experience of
intimacy.
• Upper division college women were less likely to commit to a
relationship if their identities were defined by vocational rather than
marital aspirations, whereas upper division college men showed
higher commitment in a relationship if their vocational identity was
already defined.
• College psychosocial development scores predicted later life
experiences for women, whereas life experiences in the early 30s
predicted later psychosocial development scores for men.
• Women were more likely to alter their identities as they age, whereas
men were more likely to maintain the same identity over time.
• They also found that, although the process of identity change was
negatively associated with self-esteem for both genders, identity
stability was positively associated with self-esteem for women.
• Less is known about whether and how men’s social role experiences affect
their personality development.
• women’s post-college commitment to different social roles affected their
levels of identity and generativity in mid-life: Women who committed to a
family were more concerned with generativity in middle age, whereas
women who committed to a career were more concerned with identity.
• Peterson (2002) suggested that the “stage” of generativity may extend
across a wider period of adulthood, rather than being confined to mid-
life.
• Kroger (2002) made a parallel argument about identity; she argued that
identity preoccupations might not be limited to adolescents and young
adults and that older adulthood is also a time of identity reconstruction.
• Intimacy and identity:
Women with “restricted and confused” identities in marriage (in contrast
with women with “anchored and defined” identities in marriage) were
lower in well-being and less likely to have “consolidated identities.
• Generativity:
Erikson’s focus on parenting as the ultimate expression of generativity, and
the closely related assumption that parenting is more important for
women than for men. McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992) found that,
although adult women had the highest levels of generativity when
compared to adult men and college-age women and men, having children
was more strongly linked with generativity for men than it was for women:
Fathers scored higher on generativity than men without children did.
Similarly, earlier parenting predicted achievement of mid-life generativity
among men.
Gender and Aging body & mind
• Adulthood differs as the period of life when, at some point, one switches
from “developing” to “aging”.
• The self-conscious awareness of this has been defined as a shift to “time
left” that occurs around midlife for most people.
• This shift is reflected in a parallel shift from “striving for gains” in personal
goals to “maintenance and prevention of losses.”
• Declines in physical strength and energy affect men more than women,
whereas declining appearance and sexual attractiveness affect women
more than men.
• With age following aspects are assumed to be improved: wisdom,
judgement, maturity and emotional regulation.
Gender and aging body
• Adulthood is popularly understood almost entirely in terms of “aging” rather than
development in two domains: the physical body and the mind (or cognitive functioning).
• The aging body is viewed generally as declining gradually in strength and attractiveness.
• Body image: skinny vs muscular
• Negative feelings about aging are exaggerated in media.
• Women in their 60s had more concerns about their aging bodies than did women in their
40s or 20s. Although women noticed a decrease in societal demand for attractiveness as
they aged, they also noticed a decrease in social visibility and a loss of power.
• Men were more concerned with the negative effects of aging on their physical capabilities
and function, rather than on their appearance. Some men were preoccupied with their
loss of athletic capacity and sexual potency from middle age onward.
Menopause
• One other preoccupation of the literature on aging bodies has been menopause
because of its symbolic significance as the endpoint of reproductive capacity for
women.
• Menopause is experienced by many women as not particularly significant
subjectively but is linked to women’s sexual desire, sexual attractiveness, and sexual
activity, as well as women’s self-esteem. Sometimes the findings have contradicted
cultural stereotypes.
• For example, Dillaway (2005) found that her interviewees reported feeling “sexier”
and more “womanly” (p. 407) than before the onset of menopause, perhaps because
they had previously ended their reproductive years through the use of contraception.
• Parallel attention has not been paid to the psychological implications of reproductive
system changes men experience as they age.
Andropause
• also known as androgen decline in the aging male (ADAM), partial
androgen deficiency in the aging male (PADAM), aging male syndrome
(AMS), late onset hypogonadism, or the male climacteric.
• Onset is more gradual than menopause, given the roughly 1% per
year drop in testosterone level after age 30 (Brawer, 2004).
• Along with physical symptoms (such as decreased libido, lean muscle
mass and power, and body hair), andropause allegedly affects
psychological function through a loss of motivation, poor
concentration, and a general decrease in intellectual activity.
• Its psychological impacts are not well explored.
Gender and Aging Minds
• There are only negative changes in the speed of cognitive processing
as people age
• Men and women show similar patterns of cognitive decline as they
age, others have found gender differences in specific cognitive
abilities, or in the use of those abilities in everyday practices.
• Wilson et al. (1996) found that women aged 65 and older participated
more than men of the same age in daily cognitive activities, such as
reading the newspaper, although men engaged in more cognitively
intense activities, such as reading a book or visiting a museum.
• Women out-performed men in their ability to recall words on the
California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT).
• Hyde and Linn (1988) conducted a meta-analysis of the verbal skill
literature, and showed that women’s superior verbal skill depended
on the type of verbal skill being tested:
• Men were better at analogies, and women were better at anagrams
and speech production.
• Men scored higher on the Verbal and Performance IQ subscales,
women scored higher on the Digit Symbol and Coding subscales.
• Older women are generally seen as less competent, less intelligent, and
less wise than older men. This situation is partly accounted for by gender
stereotypes, but it is also true that women’s longer lifespan means that
they are, in fact, more likely than men to develop syndromes that involve
cognitive decline, such as dementia, and are more likely than men to be
nursing home residents.
• More women live to ages and were physically frailer than comparable-age
men, and had fewer accumulated life resources (e.g., education, money,
living spouse).
• Men are also more likely to intellectualize emotions, and women are more
likely to turn inward with self-blame and self-doubt.
• Thus it can be concluded that cultural emphasis on the masculine leads to
underdevelopment of (different) psychological resources for both men and
women.
Gender and Changes in Social Roles
Across the Lifespan
• Social roles are gendered just as cognitive capacities, physical characteristics, and
personality preoccupations are. Moreover, normative pressures define not only
what roles individuals will occupy, but when and in what order they occupy them.
• Normative timing of life events such as marriage, parenthood, and occupational
commitment.
• Specifically, women were viewed as appropriately marrying relatively early
(between ages 19 and 24), as past their period of maximal responsibility at 40, and
as having accomplished most of what they would accomplish by 45.
• In contrast, men were viewed as needing to choose a career between ages 24 and
26 (the question of women and careers was not asked), as being past maximal
responsibility at 50, and as having reached maximal accomplishment by 50.
• The social roles themselves and their relative timing (marriage and children more
obligatory and sooner for women, occupation more obligatory and sooner for men)
and the relative timings (earlier for women and later for men) have changed very little.
• Both women and men are punished for acting in non-gender-normative ways. This is
particularly evident for women in traditionally male-dominated occupations and for
men who take an active parenting role rather than single-mindedly pursuing a career.
• Middle age can be a crucial time regarding social roles: The number of roles peaks and
then declines, roles change in character, status level is highest, and declines in health
begin, as does the level of formal social participation. Some women decide to add
another role in middle age by returning to school, especially after family and work
roles are established or use their multiple roles to buffer distress in periods of
transition, such as empty nest, widowhood, or retirement. There is less research on
men in this area
• Women who emphasized their roles as mothers were more susceptible to “empty nest
syndrome,” whereas women most defined by their work were often the most affected
by retirement.
Limitation in literature w.r.t gender is: Exploration of same
phenomenon in both genders is missing. So, that’s why conclusion
drawn are often overwhelming where other side of picture is unknown.
• Summing up ….
Gender is a considered as a focal point in the development of an
individual through different aspects within different societies.
Stereotypes linked with gender effects an individual from birth till
death in certain way which further highlight the importance of
studying gender.
